Study: 1,000 NYC pedestrians injured despite (because of?) Bloomberg’s goofy bike lanes

posted at 3:20 pm on September 23, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Enviro-nitwits ]   

When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind-Oz) looks in the mirror, one has to wonder whether he sees the face of Barack Obama staring back at him. Like Obama, Bloomberg subjects city residents to one failed liberal experiment after another. And, like Obama, Bloomberg later proclaims each one a resounding success.

In 2010, Bloomberg decreed that the city’s 24,000 restaurants would all have “scarlet letter”grades emblazoned on their windows in a brazen show of their Health Department-certified cleanliness (or lack thereof). This past August, he declared theprogram a success—this despite an independent inspection revealing that New York branches of Starbucks that had received “A” grades were crawling with infestation ranging from vaginal yeast to fecal strep.

But at least the letter grading system has been good for business in a troubled economy, right? Er, maybe it’s best not to ask.

Another Bloombergian brainstorm that the mayor recently deemed an unqualified success was the installation of biker-friendly bicycle lanes on all of New York’s major thoroughfares. The cost of the project was a mere $25 million (at a time when the city was closing hospitals). The plan also eliminated an entire lane of motor-vehicular traffic, creating congestion nightmares on the city’s already traffic-choked avenues. Then again, this consequence was likely intended: Bloomie is a card-carrying environmentalist.

In the press conference where Bloomberg announced the success of the bike lanes, he noted that the number of bicyclists injured since the dedicated lanes were installed has declined. What he neglected to mention is that the number of pedestrians injured by reckless cyclists has not.

A study recently done by Hunter College professorsfound that 55% of all emergency-room visits in the state resulting from bikes hitting pedestrians occur in New York City. One of the study’s authors, Bill Milczarski, told the New York Post that the number of injured pedestrians could be even higher, adding, “We don’t know how many people are injured and just go home or see their family doctor.”

That the accidents were waiting to happen should have been evident to city planners from the get-go. Then again, Bloomberg travels everywhere in a bullet-proof limo. It is not likely, he has ventured out from behind a parked car (cars are now parked a lane’s width out from the curb to accommodate the bike lanes) only to be greeted by a speeding cyclist bearing down on him, shouting “Watch it!”

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